1 lb chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 red, yellow or orange peppers, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
14 oz can diced tomatoes
2/3 c white wine (or chicken stock if you aren't into intoxicating minors)
1 tsp oregano
15-oz can cannellini (white kidney) beans
Salt, pepper
Prep! Slice your onions and peppers thinly, trim the fat off the chicken. Drain and rinse your beans. I wouldn't crush your garlic in advance, though, messy and you want all the flavour in your pan. I am going to be ricing my tomatoes because the original recipe called for passata, and I can't find that nowheres. Should you have a food mill or potato ricer, feel free to press your diced tomatoes the same way, even a fine mesh sieve would work. Just push through the mesh and voila! Or just used diced and don't do anything to them, it will just be a little more chunky.
Heat the oil, season your chicken with salt and pepper; cook until golden on both sides, about 4-5 minutes per side.
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| Flaaaavour |
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| Right about now your kitchen starts smelling amazing |
Pour in the wine or chicken stock, scrape up all the awesome brown bits on the bottom. Return the chicken and add in the diced tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. I always feel uncomfortable when I read "season to taste" in a situation like this, because I certainly don't dig tasting sauce that has half-raw chicken in it and cold tomatoes. What I mean in this situation is sprinkle some on, taste it in 10 or 15 minutes and adjust as needed.
Bring to a boil, then simmer at low heat for 30-35 minutes, until the sauce is reduced somewhat and the chicken is cooked through. Flip the chicken halfway through.
Add in the rinsed and drained beans; stir and heat through, about 5 minutes.
I made this into 4 portions at 408 calories per serving and added some fusilli and broccoli for a full meal in the 400-500 calorie range. Mine was a little higher because I had a couple hundred grams of chicken thighs. If you used the 1 pound, you would end up closer to 330 calorie range. I prefer it with a lighter pasta, say angel hair or spaghettini, but fusilli is what I had, and it was lovely. If you haven't tried cannellini beans before, you have to. They add juuust the right amount of creaminess and a nice punch of protein, fantastic. Try it!
Wow, yet another yummy way to do chicken; a nice alternative to Creole Chicken. I've read in several places that the alcohol cooks off during the simmering process, just leaving the flavor. However, if you're not wild about getting young children accustomed to the taste of alcohol....
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try this this week.
It is true that you do lose most of the intoxicate-ableness (is that a word?) while cooking, but some is always retained. I read that but also had the opportunity to experience it first hand. I was on meds that said "NO ALCOHOL EVER" but I thought, surely the don't mean the beer in my beef and beer stew?? That cooks for an hour?? And apparently they absolutely meant that, which my stomach spent the rest of the night explaining to my bum.
DeleteNow that I look at it, I'm a little confused about the garlic. In the ingredient list you say "2 cloves garlic, crushed" but in the instructions for the prep you say not to crush the garlic?
ReplyDeleteGuess who's going to be the editor of your cookbook when you get around to getting it published? After the restaurant with the stand-up comedy theatre in it!
Sorry about the confusion! I meant you shouldn't crush your garlic in advance as part if prep; it should be done directly into the pan. So we don't lose any of that lovely lovely garlic essence. I will change it in the verbiage.
DeleteThanks for the clarification. I have noticed that garlic and sometimes jalapeno flavours get lost if done too far in advance, so good suggestion.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking that this is going to be a very liquid dish, so I'm going to add some pasta (don't have anything fancy, so it's going to be macaroni this time) round about halfway through the cooking.
And I bet one could throw in broccoli at the last few seconds on the top of it all, just a few minutes to get it cooked but still crisp - that way just the one pot used for the dish. Love those one-pot dishes!
I'll let you know how it turns out.
(As you can tell, I'm planning to cook this this evening).
Well, yet another adventure.. First, had to substitute chicken breasts for thighs, (thanks, Safeway!). Then, because I was unsure about having enough liquid to be properly absorbed by 1 cup macaroni, added another can of tomatoes. Come to tasting time, I added 2 tsps. honey and half a can of tomato paste, to even out the acidic taste and add more "umani" (made it more like spaghetti sauce). Plus a few chili flakes, of course.
ReplyDeleteSo, next time I'll add the beans earlier, they came out kind of tough this time.
As it was, this came to "Not bad", per our restaurant critic Gpa Norm. I was hoping for "Not bad at all", but 2 stars are good to start with.
Great! Let me know if you get around to trying Tuscan Chicken! Sorry, I kill me. Glad it all worked oot!
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